Sean Munroe2/3/15Period 8Deception is natural

The article In the Primates, a Highly Evolved Propensity for Deceit by Natalie Angier explains the science behind deception and how different species deceive each other as well as other species, specifically naive humans. Angier explains that the larger/more complex your neocortex, the more likely you will lie,cheat, and deceive others.

There has been a lot of evidence to support the prior statement. Angier writes about and experiment in which Bella DePaulo, a psychologist, had 147 people keep a diary of every lie they tell a day for a week. The shocking results show that most of the test subjects lies are minor and wouldnt affect their lives at all. The abundance of lies told every day by the test subjects shows how easy it is to lie, a term Angier calls lie blindness. The lie blindness that humans express shows a desire to be deceived because we are afraid of the truth. After all, do you want to know if your spouse is cheating or that you are a bad cook.

Deception also occurs in other species. For example, fish have appendages that wiggle like worms in order to attract their prey. This is what scientists call tactical deception, the use of a normal behavior in a novel situation. Angier writes Tactical deception requires considerable behavior suppleness, which is why its most often observed in the brainiest animals. Humans are easily deceived by animals of other species. Angier gives the example of Apes at the zoo. When hungry, Apes will attract you towards them by holding out a piece of straw while putting on their friendlist face. Dolphins in the aquarium also learn to deceive humans. Angier presents the story of how dolphins were trained to clean trash from inside the tank. As their reward, the would receive a fish for every load they bring to their trainers. One dolphin quickly learned to hide trash under a rock and bring up one piece at a time. Both these examples presented show how naive humans are easily deceived.